The Bawdy Cloister

Hey You Guys!!!

Morgan Freeman gave us quite a scare last week wrecking his car.  But he's out of the hospital now and his prognosis is good, and if you're anything like me, you heaved a massive sigh of relief.  You might recall that we here at the Bawdy Cloister awarded Mr. Freeman the first annual American Larrikin Award back in 2006 for his role as Easy Reader on The Electric Company.  After receiving our award, interest in Easy Reader spiked dramatically-- his performance can now be viewed on YouTube:

We just wanted to give a shout out to our favorite teacher and send our hopes for a full and swift recovery.

Oh, and by the way, The Electric Company is coming back!  It'll start airing on PBS Kids in January 2009.  Now, usually, I don't do this but uh....Go head' on and break 'em off wit a lil' preview of the remix:

Rowdy's High School Friends in Review

ITEM!

A guy in my high school creative writing club, Bryan Mealer, just published a book.  It's called All Things Must Fight to Live.  Go, Buy, Read.  And be sure you take the time to watch the videos on his website. Bryan's running around on a book tour these days; he was in San Antonio last week.  After his reading I overheard one woman sitting next to me tell another that her daughter, K., went to high school with Bryan.  I turned to her and immediately recognized her: 

"You're K.T.'s mom!"

"Yes!" 

"I'm Rowdy, I was at your house quite a bit.  I'm the guy that took K. to the Bo Diddley concert." 

"Oh, yes, I remember."

"Just want you to know that I still haven't forgiven you for setting K.'s curfew so early, we only caught the first 30 minutes of Bo's show before I had to return her home." 

"Well, I was the evil mother."

"Grrr."

She was nice enough to forward me K.'s email though, so she's regained a couple of points.

Anyway, after Bryan finished his appearance we headed over to the Alamo Cafe and caught up.  We hadn't seen each other since 1993.

ITEM!

I learned tonight that I'm not the only person from my high school with a website dedicated to a defunct restaurant.  My friend, Eve, has a site recognizing the great cafeteria that once was Dubrow's.

ITEM!

Earlier this week I got an email from my high school buddy, Crizzabster, in New York.  He's in a film called "Off Off Broadway" that you can watch for free online.  Don't want to spoil it, but it's funny.  It's a full-length feature, so set aside some time and get a comfortable chair.  Here's the link.  Let me know what you think.

Rowdy's Week in Review

ITEM!

I know it's long overdue, but I promised to tell folks how last month's trip to Antiques Roadshow went down.  Our tickets were for 4:00 o'clock and we arrived about ten minutes early.  The ticket said not to arrive more than 30 minutes early anyway.  We passed through security who wanted to ensure we weren't bringing in great-grandpa's favorite box o' dynamite, then entered the line.  About two hours later we reached the front of the line where we met with the "General Appraiser."  She looked over our stuff to determine which of 20 categories they belonged to.  She gave us four "Asian Art" tickets and told us to go stand in the Asian Art line.  It was the shortest secondary line there, only one person ahead of me.  Some of the Americana lines stretched for miles, and after waiting two hours I was glad I didn't have to wait longer.  The first three items were the tanuki, kappa and daruma we got in Japan last November.  The appraiser took a look at the daruma and said it was 1960s kitsch that might fetch a few dollars at auction, same for the tanuki.  Fair enough, that's what I thought.  But then came the kappa... "Yeah, this looks like something you could find in any regional antique store..."  Mrs. T just about punched him.  She is under the impression that the kappa (which we paid much more for) is Meiji era.  She says it was made long before Japanese started pumping out crap novelties to sell to American servicemen in country for the Reconstruction or the Korean War... that's the stuff you see in American antique stores.  Mrs. T lost all respect for the appraiser at that point.  Then came our big one.  Mrs. T's grandmother gave her an old book that appeared to have many hand-drawn illustrations in it.  Mrs. T told me when we got it that it was Edo period.  Mrs. T's grandmother had a friend whose mother lived in the old jōkamachi of Gifu.  The book came from this woman's mother who'd gotten it in the long, long ago.  Mrs. T and I assumed we were sitting on gold.  Just before we left for Antiques Roadshow, Mrs. T gave the book a more careful look and discovered that it was manufactured in the Meiji Period and not the Edo.  She was crushed, but I still held out hope because of all it's hand-drawn illustrations.

So, I pull out the book in front of the appraiser and he unfolds the centerfold and says, "Ooo, what do we have here?"  This attracted the attention of the second appraiser sitting next to him and she took it for a more careful look... "It's a history magazine..."  We knew that.   "It was published in 1892...."  We knew that too.  "Now these illustrations aren't hand-drawn, as they might appear, but they were printed by hand on wood blocks."  I looked at Mrs. T and said, "I thought you said these were hand-done?"  She says, "Duh, they're wood-block can't you tell.  I told you they were made by hand meaning that they were hand-made by wood block."  My dreams of early retirement evaporated at that point.  "This is really nice, you'd probably get $100-$150 for this at auction, have a nice day."   Auughh!  We gathered our stuff and shuffled solemnly back to the car.  No words were spoken.

I showed up at work Monday and one of my associates had gone too.  He had an antique German stein appraised at $900.  Jerk.

ITEM!

This has been a wild week online.  I joined Facebook and have reconnected with a number of old high school friends that I haven't heard from in 15 years.  Just as I was in the thick of reconnecting with folks, I got an email today from completely out of the blue... not through Facebook, but through Classmates.com.  It was my 8th grade French teacher!  She was one of my all-time favorites and I always hung around after class to talk with her.  So I get this email today, "Rowdy!!  One of my very first students!  What have you been up to?"   This is so cool, I'm so used to being the one looking.  It's nice to be found for a change.

Unforgotten

"You know that a lot of our friends out there feel that George W. Bush, and I think that we can agree with them, that would be a horrific event if he became President of the United States.  Here's the thing that I got to say, and I really want to say this to the young people here who are voting for the first time.  If you don't vote your conscience now, when will you start?....if in the very first election of your life you start to settle for less, how does that move us forward?"  --Michael Moore, speaking at a campaign rally for Ralph Nader, October 13, 2000.

While channel surfing Friday night, I ran across Michael Moore plugging his new movie on Larry King:

Ever since the 2004 election, a sense of betrayal sweeps through me whenever I run across this guy.  But they say time heals all wounds and I try hard to forgive and forget.  I encourage folks to watch his movies and I defend him time and again from those who attack him from the right.  So, I put down my remote control and gave him a listen.  And this is the exchange I heard:

MOORE: I didn't support [Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential race.] I lived here in New York State at the time, and I supported Ralph Nader. And I said that, you know, I was part of a group of people who said that if you live in a state that's not a swing state, a state that's definitely going to go for either Gore or Bush, consider voting for Nader. It's a strategy the right has often used, you know, when their person is elected like Reagan or Bush, and you want to pull them to the right as much as possible.

KING: But a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush, wasn't it?

MOORE: Well, it wasn't in New York state because remember...

KING: In some places it was.

MOORE: Yes. And I said if you lived in Florida or places like that you have to vote for Gore. And I have to be honest and say it's really -- it's had tragic results. And unfortunately, Ralph Nader, a lot of his supporters, he said he wasn't going to campaign in the swing states and then he went and campaigned in those states. And when he started doing that, a lot of us said we're not going there. We're not doing that. And I didn't and I told, you know, my fans that if you live in places like Florida or Ohio or whatever, you've got to vote for Gore.

At this point my ears began to bleed!  I couldn't believe he was still repeating this lie.  He made similar remarks on The Charlie Rose Show back in 2004.  At that time, it spurred a reply from Nader himself:

NADER: On "The Charlie Rose Show" last Thursday you repeated the false statement that I promised to avoid the close states in 2000 and therefore you broke away from the campaign in the last month and urged a vote for Gore. Strange – you were berating Democrats before nearly 10,000 people at our MCI Rally on November 5 – two days before the election. If you would like to see a copy of the tape of your speech let me know. And, you campaigned with us in some of those close states. I have called you on this false assertion regarding the close states yet you keep repeating the falsehood. Our 2000 Campaign was a 50 state run, (and I campaigned in all 50 states) from the beginning, a point repeated again and again, even though I spent 28 days in California and only 2 ½ in Florida.

Like I said though, I would much prefer to forgive and forget.  Here's a little deal I'd like to make with Michael.  You see, you're not the only guy with a movie release this past week:

  ON DVD JUNE 2007!

So I tell you what, Michael.  You watch An Unreasonable Man and I'll steer people to watch Sicko.

RateMyFriends.com

J-Go posted a little bit about RateMyProfessors.com.  It's a nifty site that I wish existed back when I was in school.  At first I didn't think the site could serve much purpose for me today other than check up on my old profs to see if they still have the goods.  But then I got to thinking... some of my old friends from Ohio University are professors now!  So I thought I'd see what the kids today think of them:

Elliot Ratzman, Swarthmore College, Religion

Angela Pitts, University of Mary Washington, Classics

Jonathan Winkler, Wright State University, History

Ha Ha!  They're all doing well!  And a good thing too or this would have been a pretty embarrassing post. 

Encore Blog Post from July 22, 2004

So my previous post did spark some conversation.  The comments led to me rehashing an old story that I blogged about in the long long ago.  I figured I'd dust it off and bring it back into the light for one more go:

Million Man Mutterings

My Farrakhan Crispy Bar

So Kerry attended the NAACP convention and Bush is bound to speak to the Urban League. Floridians are fighting to enfranchise felons, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently spewed obscene epithets at Ralph Nader. Let’s also not forget about Bill Cosby. All this has got me thinking about a little trip I took to Washington, D.C. almost ten years ago.
I attended the Million Man March. The evening before the march I went to the Prayer & Praise Rally held in the Washington Convention Center. There we read Leviticus 23:23-37. This was followed by a series of speakers imploring the congregation to “Heed the Call.” They spoke in turn: The Call to Atonement, by Rev. Walter Fauntroy; The Call to Reconciliation, by Rev. William Bennett; The Call to Unity, by Bishop C.L. Long; and the Call to Restoration, by Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks. After the benediction I left, invigorated, for the National Mall where I camped by the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. Only a handful of people were there when I arrived. Throughout the night the crowd grew. By 6:00AM there was no end in sight to the sea of black men. Then morning prayers began both Christian and Muslim. The rest is history.
That was 1995. Much of the dialogue in the news today echoes what was spoken then:

Bill Cosby in 2004, “[I]t is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in the hole you’re sitting in”

Hon. Louis Farrakhan at the March, “Black man, you don’t have to bash white people. All we’ve got to do is go back home and turn our communities into productive places.”

Bill Cosby in 2004, “When you put on a record and that record is yelling ‘n---- this and n---- that’ and you’ve got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that.”

From the Million Man March Pledge, “I will support Black artists, who clean up their acts to show respect for themselves and respect for their people, and respect for the ears of the human family.”

Bill Cosby in 2004, “Stop beating up your women because you can’t find a job.”

From the Million Man March Pledge, “I will never abuse my wife by striking her, disrespecting her for she is the mother of my children and the producer of my future.”

However, the spirit of the dialogue is dramatically different. I hear the calls for Unity and Reconstruction, but what of Atonement and Reconciliation? At the March, Brother Farrakhan said, “We’re talking about moving forward to a perfect union. Well, pointing out fault, pointing out our wrongs is the first step. The second step is to acknowledge. ‘Oh, thank you. Oh, man, I’m wrong.’” Today’s rhetoric is inflammatory. Accusations and blame are not followed through with encouragement. That sense of fresh possibility is thwarted with comments such as Cosby’s, “You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity.” In contrast, Minister Farrakhan said at the March, “We must become a totally organized people, and the only way we can do that is to become part of some organization that is working for the uplift of our people. Now, brothers, moral and spiritual renewal is a necessity. Every one of you must go back home and join some church, synagogue, temple, or mosque that is teaching spiritual and moral uplift.” His words were not mere proselytizing. He was encouraging people to embark on a new life journey with hope and support. He exhibited grace. Rep. Melvin Watt (D-North Carolina) did not demonstrate grace at the recent meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus when he found himself in disagreement with Ralph Nader. There Watt allegedly called Nader “just another arrogant white man, telling us what we can do. It’s all about your ego, another f----- arrogant white man.” The Million Man March was intended for black men only. A few people around me began to mutter about my presence—a rogue white man. Did they react like Rep. Watt? No. The tension broke when a man from the Nation of Islam shouted with an welcoming laugh, “Looks like a million and one made it out today!”

This post first appeared July 22, 2004 on the original Bawdy Cloister.

Week in Review

ITEM!

I almost never buy CDs or DVDs at the mall.  But this weekend I found a copy of Dino De Laurentiis' 1976 version of King Kong on sale for $4.50.  I couldn't pass it up.

I remember as a kid collecting the trading cards.  I just found these pictures on EBay:

I'm not sure whatever happened to mine.  Probably gone in one of the yard sales my folks seemed to throw every other year.  At any rate, it was good to see the film again.  First time in nearly 30 years.  I was amazed at how much I actually remembered.

Still haven't seen the new Peter Jackson version yet.  And honestly, I'm not in any great hurry to do so.  I heard it was wicked long.  Mrs. T is not a movie fan at all, so I don't watch as much as I like.  I've got a huge backlog of flicks I've yet to see (including everything nominated for best picture this year.) 

ITEM!

It's been a bittersweet time in bloggerdom these past couple of weeks.  J-Go closed down Suburban Scrawl after three years and JtH is on an indefinite hiatus.  Admittedly, I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like, and I'm probably going to consolidate... no more Friday Cat Blogging and I'm probably going to close down my quiz.  (Kind of silly to host a quiz I think if you don't have time to play it yourself.)  But you can still get your quiz fix over at CBK's place.  I'm not going anywhere though, I just don't want to commit to serials if I can't maintain them.

It's not all bad news though.... the Hyperbolic Hermitage just popped onto the scene and will replace J-Go on my sidebar.  Oh, and for now on, anytime I have to mention J-Go, his name will be linked to this site.... I know it's cruel, but it's a just punishment... at least until he decides to resurrect his blog. 

FOUND IT!

I was browsing through some online toy stores this evening and stumbled across this....

The Darda Create-a-Course Racing System!

I had one of these things as a kid and loved it.  But as I searched for them in later years, I couldn't find them.  I got mine in Germany and I only knew to call it Dardadrome.  The problem today is that if you type "Dardadrome" into a search engine you only get results for the Belgian electropop band by that name.  I feel like I've been reunited with a long-lost friend.... now I know what to ask Mrs. T to get me for my birthday.

DVD Release of the Millenium

   At last...catch the trailer here (Quicktime) and mark your calendar for February 7.

Or check out the trailer here (Windows Viewer)

The Claws Pause

Here's an old copy of The Claws Pause, the student paper for Hanau American High School.  I tried to upload it to my class's newsgroup, but for some reason it's not working.  So I'm posting  it here...enjoy.

Vol. 2 Issue 3, pp 1-6

pp 7-19

pp 20-22

(I've had to divide the paper up into 3 different files because my computer kept crashing while trying to scan everything into a single file, sorry for the inconvenience.)